In an article posted on HCPLive, healthcare writer Ed Rabinowitz predicts that social media will be a dominant form doctor-patient communication in less than four years.
Improving Listening Skills
To make successful use of social media tools, doctors must first learn to listen. Then, they must learn to interact with people their patients on a human—not necessarily only medical—level. But that can be difficult for some health care professionals, who may be used to being in a position of authority. Says Ed Schipul, founder of Schipul – The Web Marketing Company, “Doctors are brilliant, but just because you’re brilliant doesn’t mean I’m going to have you repair an engine on the airplane I’ll be flying, because you’re not trained in that area. First, you have to walk in the room and listen.” (The “virtual” room in this case being social media.) Schipul suggests setting up Google alerts that will pop up any time their name or practice name is mentioned in a blog post. Think of it as a “clipping service” for your brand. Plus, it’s easy and instantaneous.
Getting Involved
The next step is to establish a social media presence. For example, at M.D. Anderson, listening helps staff assist patients. “We listen to what the conversations are about in social media, and we pass that on to patient advocacy,” says Jennifer Texada, program manager of Digital and New Media at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Physicians are participating, too. For example, one physician may be tweeting about his research, while others have used Facebook to locate other physicians who may be interested in doing medical missionary work.
“There are some challenges, obviously, with HIPAA compliance and not wanting to share health-specific information online,” says Texada. “But I think we’ve gotten to the point where physicians are starting to embrace the fact that their patients are researching online, and that the Web is a reputable place to post study results. I don’t think use of these tools is going to slow down any time soon.”
Getting Started
Doctors interested in social media outreach may want send an email to their staff asking if any are already using social media. And YourCity.MD, a new social network for physicians, is helping physicians build relationships with patients, by allowing patients to rate doctors and provide feedback directly on the doctors’ web sites. For no charge, physicians review the feedback and use it to grow and improve their practice. \n
Read the original article at: http://www.hcplive.com/finance/articles/social_media_tools
